Frozen [PG]

Frozen, Disney’s latest animated feature, promises a fresh take on the traditional fairytale, with stellar animation and voice work making it one of the studio’s best films in years. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel co-star as two sisters in this loosely based adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Snow Queen’. The score is absolutely fantastic and there are so many memorable and loveable characters in Frozen that it is sure to be a hit with the whole family. Elsa (Menzel) and Anna (Bell) are sisters in a mystical Nordic kingdom called Arendelle, where their parents are the King and Queen. Elsa, the elder of the two, has a magical power to create snow and ice – but she has difficulty controlling this power and its strength only grows with year that passes. So Elsa is forced to shut herself off from the world, shutting her door and leaving Anna alone in the empty halls of their palace for years. Upon Elsa’s coming of age to the throne of Arendelle, the castle doors open to a flood of people from as far and wide as the neighboring kingdoms. With all of the commotion and pressure, Elsa feels stressed and in a sense cornered, and her powers reveal themselves. After being heralded as a monster and a danger to all, Elsa runs to the mountains to live in solace in an ice palace she built for herself. Anna, naïve and playful in her youth, goes on an adventurous quest to find Elsa and get her to come back down to Arendelle. The main motivation for her journey is that Elsa’s powers have frozen over all of the fjords and streams of the kingdom, and so an end to this harsh and sudden winter is desperately needed, but Anna also wants to rekindle the close relationship she had with her sister when they were children.

This sisterly narrative is a fresh take on the traditional Disney fairytale, and there are so many other wonderful characters to enjoy here. There’s Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), a clumsy but well-intentioned young man who sells ice for a living, and aids Anna in her search for her sister. Kristoff is partnered with his reindeer Sven, a cute companion with a personality not too far off from his owner. Later on in the story, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven are joined by Olaf (Josh Gad), a humorous and caring snowman determined to experience summer. All of these characters are charming in their own way, but Disney and writer Jennifer Lee never forget to include many heartfelt moments as well.

The animation on display in Frozen is also worth marveling at, and Arendelle and Elsa’s ice palace both look beautiful. The voice acting is strong, and the singing stronger still. Robert & Kristen Lopez wrote a handful of terrific songs for this film, from the instant-classic “Let it Go” to the joyous “For the First Time in Forever”. All around, Frozen is certainly worth watching with your family and friends, its cute and warm characters exist in a world of song and snow, and the thematic content presents an original take on the well-known Ice Queen story, suggesting she may just be misunderstood and looking for a way to get her family back. This movie is immensely entertaining, and shows that Disney can still crank out top-class family films, something worth celebrating as the generation born after the 1990s ‘Disney Renaissance’ begins to discover and indulge in Disney’s trove of animated treasures.